


An Antique Land

by themusketeerofrohan



Series: 25 Lives [1]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: 1880s, Archaeology, Couldn't Resist the Prompt, Egyptology, Egyptology AU, Extensive Research, Gen, M/M, Near Death Experiences Bring People Together, Portamis - Freeform, Porthamis, Turn of the Century, have we decided on that ship name yet?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2030481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themusketeerofrohan/pseuds/themusketeerofrohan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Musketeers Egyptology and Archaeology historical AU.</p>
<p>Aramis is a ostensibly a musty hieroglyphist, Porthos a reckless student just out of university. The year is 1889, and Egypt is just beginning to give up its secrets. The tombs are full of dangers, and the desert is not kind. Two Frenchmen attempt to uncover the past, unwittingly determining their future together.</p>
<p>If I get round to writing more, part of 25 Lives. Reincarnation series with Porthamis finding each other in past, previous and future lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Antique Land

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plinys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/gifts).



Aramis definitively decided Porthos was a reckless idiot the summer he first came to Egypt, whilst running from cloud of toxic gases. He wasn’t to know that the rowdy student fresh out of the libraries and lectures would become his closest friend and companion. But in that moment he was wheezing and stumbling through a tunnel scattered with rubble, handkerchief over mouth, hearing the other man’s footsteps behind and praying that the next breath didn’t come laced with ammonia and formaldehyde. Mother of God, he’d only been called in by the dig to excavate some very delicate wall paintings, and determine whether or not the tomb belonged to Iaret, wife of Thutmose IV. Sprinting back up to the surface had definitely not been on his contract. If only that idiot student hadn’t been nosy and drilled into the tomb walls before he’d been good and ready! His heart rate quickened as papers mentally whirled before him, reminding him suddenly that the whiff of rotten eggs and his increased breathing rate weren’t just a result of adrenaline and usual tomb smell. Hydrogen sulfide. Aramis ran faster _. Hail Mary, full of grace..._

Bursting into the blazing heat of the desert, both men dropped to the ground and panted, drawing in the dry, dusty and blessedly non-toxic air. Once his heart had returned to a level more befitting of an experienced Egyptologist, Aramis turned to Porthos.

 “What in God’s name did you think you were doing?”

His voice was hoarse, hair sweaty and coated with dust, and his face (handsomely furnished with a trim beard) was puce. Porthos was exhausted, exhilarated and smitten. Sure, he’d been afraid, but they’d survived! This was a story for those campfires in the future. And the gases meant there was some dead matter behind that wall, there had to be! It was all rather a success actually.  

“Sorry, my friend, I got ahead of myself! But the gas should clear in a short while, and then you can be back down there with your paintings and I’ll be discovering the mummy, no?”

He grinned, a broad white swipe through his face, framed by chapped lips that Aramis couldn’t help but notice. Chapped, full lips. No. Stop.

He grimaced, prepared to rant at the stupid fool until his voice hurt then stopped, remembering that he hadn’t strictly been cleared to enter the tomb that morning and that while the main body of the tomb had been cleared for safe excavation, the dig leader hadn’t quite finished on their full survey. He hadn’t paid too much heed to it- archaeology wasn’t too much of an exact science and the tomb was a robbed one- sarcophagus empty, several  walls broken, meaning the gas had probably already been spent on the grave robbers (and not a moment too soon in his opinion). He’d be more careful in the future. And there would only be a future if the student was allowed to stay on, and so... his lips had to remain firmly shut.

“I doubt there’s anything human behind those walls, maybe an antechamber if we’re lucky. Look, we’ll bring more people down, but you’re to stay with the professor, understand? No more drilling.”

Porthos grinned again, and brought an arm down across the grouchy shoulders of the hieroglyphist. “You need to lighten up my friend. This is 1899! We’re explorers in Egypt at the dawn of a new century, no better place to be.”

Aramis shrugged off the larger man’s arm. “We’ll see about that. And I’d prefer if you weren’t so familiar, Mr...?”

“Porthos du Vallon, late of the College de Sorbonne. And I might know you as?”

Aramis didn’t respond at the mention of the famous school, preferring instead to turn away and begin to examine the notes he’d made on the hieroglyphics.

“Rene d’Herblay.”

“But I heard people calling you Aramis?”

Aramis quietly smirked to himself and turned to the confused man.

“That name is reserved for my friends. You, so far, have managed to nearly kill me, and worse, possibly destroyed those paintings. I don’t quite count that as an act of friendship.”

But then he turned to face Porthos, and met him with a large smile. He hadn’t felt so alive in years.

“But we shall see, Mr du Vallon, we shall see.”

**Author's Note:**

> I guess this work was in no little part inspired by the work of plinys in AU's. Different fandom, same excitement to put characters in alternate universes. 
> 
> I did a lot of research for this, something which might end up being just a one-shot. But I love Egyptology, and I really want to include Auguste Mariette, an amazing man I discovered whilst researching who isn't mentioned, but actually is the main thread of the whole setting!  
> I have never known so much about the history of the university system of France. Enough said.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this, comments welcome (especially if you'd like more) kudos much appreciated.


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